The more computerized and homogenized our world becomes, the more we admire the artisans among us. Decorative objects such as jewelry, textiles and pottery take on a special luster when they're made--lovingly, we infer--by actual humans.

In the past, shoppers found these handicrafts largely at boutiques, craft shows and the like. All that changed in 2005, when tech and aesthetic talent merged in a popular (and populist), mutually beneficial way. That year, the e-commerce website Etsy.com was launched in Brooklyn, N.Y., giving gifted makers everywhere an easy way to peddle their wares on a global scale.

Etsy--a nonsense word, according to Robert Kalin, one of the company's four founders--today purveys not only handmade arts of all kinds, but vintage (at least 20 years old) and unique factory-manufactured merchandise. Dozens of other categories, including craft supplies, specialty foods and live plants, are also part of this online bazaar. By paying Etsy a reasonable listing fee of 20 cents per item and 3.5 percent of every sale, even part-time hobbyists can make money if enough people like what they find in their virtual storefronts.

Most of the sellers (and presumably buyers) are women. At more than 1 million active shops and 30 million members (you have to be one in order to purchase), that's a near endless parade of stock to peruse and looky-loos to consume it all. Especially for important occasions like weddings, birthdays and holidays--ahem, Valentine's Day--Etsy is a go-to site for one-of-a-kind gifts.

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No surprise, Silicon Valley artisan/entrepreneurs have wholeheartedly embraced the innovation of Etsy. Recent browsing indicated about 36,000 items for sale from San Jose alone. A few of them are offered by Greg and Lora Price, whose respective day jobs are as an IT consultant and a tech trainer at Redwood City's Silver Spring Networks. The couple opened their Etsy storefront, Steamy Tech (search for SteamyTech), in September 2012, not long after they discovered steampunk, a sci-fi sub-genre whose settings are typically from either the American Wild West or England's Victorian era.

In design, steampunk can be interpreted as fantastical contraptions that balance form and function. The Prices' vision of that--mostly jewelry, folding wallets, even bow ties--is crafted from laser-cut birch plywood based on 3-D printed designs.

"When we decided we wanted to make steampunk items for ourselves, the first thing that came to mind was gears," they say on Etsy. "Gears can't just stand still. They need to move and do things."

The "imaginary gear heart pin," $20 and created with the use of a software program called Arduino, is an example of their line. The software "helped us design the gears," Lora Price explains, which then had to be meshed or "packaged" correctly so that they actually move with the help of a drivetrain on the back.

The Prices first attempted to make their curios out of acrylic, but that medium proved to be brittle and cracked easily. "Then we started using wood and fell in love with the way it looked," she says. Etsy, she continues, "is a great way to market stuff. It's huge in terms of visibility and credibility." Typical of sellers, the Prices also get the word out about their shop via Facebook; so far they have 14,000 followers.

Sonja Caldwell, meanwhile, started taking photos in high school, then used the pictures as inspiration for "photo realism" paintings. After she earned an art degree from UC-Davis, a friend suggested, " 'Just take the photos; forget about the painting.' So that's what I did," she says.

At her eponymous Etsy store (SonjaCaldwell), she sells romantic, post-processed prints of her work for about $15 to $30 apiece. Idealized photographs of Paris, a city she's visited often, dominate the offerings, and include gargoyles, pastries, the Eiffel tower and, her favorite "flowers--anything with flowers in the foreground."

By day, Caldwell contracts at Mountain View's NASA Ames as a senior graphic artist. "They're short-term projects, so when one ends I can work on my photography in the down time. I started my Etsy shop very slowly [in 2010], because I was initially incredibly shy about getting my work out there. I began with 10 photos and now have about 175. I'd like to have about 400."

Caldwell calls her customers "really friendly, lovely and sweet." So far they've kept her Etsy sales steady enough. "I would love this to replace my day job but it's far from that point," she says. Still, "I'm getting a little money and it makes me happy."

OmMadeJewelry is the name of Diane Schneider's Etsy business, where she purveys "homemade spiritual artisan goods made with love." "I want things to be beautiful and have healing properties," she says of the baubles--angel wing pendants, quartz crystal earrings, Namaste necklaces and more--she fashions from silver and semi-precious stones.

Her avocation began in 1990 with a CD of The Best of the Doors, where a bare-chested Jim Morrison adorns the cover, and a simple beaded necklace adorns him. Schneider, who works in Campbell and San Jose, wanted to make a necklace just like the rock band's bad boy vocalist. She went to a bead shop, CD in hand, and faster than you can say "Light My Fire," a hobby was born.

Eventually, Schneider sought to monetize her jewelry-making efforts, at first trying her luck online with the domain registrar Go Daddy. "That cost too much and didn't get enough traffic," she says. "Etsy is better, so I closed my Go Daddy site and went there."

Last year, the "big-time crafter and artist" also branched out into stamping silver cutlery, thanks to a friend who was getting married and asked Schneider to mark some silverware for her. She now finds assorted flatware in antique and second-hand stores, then stamps teaspoons with phrases like "I adore you" or matching forks with "I do" and "Me too." Prices range from $12.50 for one piece of silverware to $250 for a multi-stone necklace. Schneider will gladly fill custom orders, and is a perfect resource for a last-minute Valentine's Day present. For local orders she can ship within one or two days.

The inspiration for the "circuit heart nerdy love Valentine's Day or anniversary greeting card" available at Elsie J Prints (elsiej) was right at hand for Lindsey Chin-Jones. The graphic designer made such a card for her husband, an electrical engineer, who teasingly responded, "That circuit wouldn't really work."

Chin-Jones was an early Etsy adopter, opening her "doors" there for the first time in 2006 after graduating from UC-Davis with a degree in design. "I'd always loved doing cards and invitations, I always liked art and painting and drawing. I made cards for friends and my parents, so I did [online selling] on the side while looking for a job," she says.

The Chico native eventually landed full-time positions in the Napa wine country, as well as at the Fairfield headquarters of paper goods chain Papyrus. She took a break from online selling. Now, she and her husband have relocated to San Jose and she wants to build her brand again.

Why Etsy? "Because it's a really easy interface to sell. The transactions are simple and it's got a built-in consumer base," she says. Chin-Jones offers "professionally designed cards, stationery items, announcements, and wedding invitations and collections." She's totally cool with customizing color, text and photos--or more if that's your desire. If you want to order designs from her site, prices start at $1.60 for a postcard, $3.75 for an individual greeting card.

Chin-Jones estimates that Etsy currently accounts for about one-third of her income. Most of her business is from wedding invitations, and she's about to hit the busy season for those. Work "is slowly growing again, by repeat orders and word of mouth," she says. "The pace is slow and steady." Comforting words to hear in this warp-speed world.